27 May 2009 - 10:31 pm

I have just changed into my PJs and getting ready to enter the ideal,peaceful world of sleep and dreams. Suddenly , Rakesh (one of my roomies) gets a call from his mausi from bangalore. They have a daughter who has come by to Balewadi sports complex for the under 16 (or under 14 or under 15, do i look like one who is interested in such facts?) tennis (atleast I am sure its tennis!) tournament. The poor kid's mobile has broken down and she has not been able to contact her parents for some 4-5 days. So what do you know? There is always good ol Rakesh who can zip by and get some update as well as be the mobile repairer or atleast the delivery to repairer guy! And good ol me to be dragged by wherever my loafer roomies loaf!

"Haan, haan, haan mausi!" thats the end of the conversation I hear and I instinctively change back into my jeans knowing this might be one of those nights!

10:55 pm

We are at the Balewadi sports Hostel.We expect the security to be Zplus (isnt that the term used for very high security? du uh!).But there we are strolling around the hostel trying to find out someone who can help us. The guards are nonchalantly chatting away within themselves.I expected a huge obstacle here , but somehow the guards just dont want to stop us.I imagine why, I look as non sportsperson as a guy could possibly look - lean, droopy, glasses, intelligent(ahem!). I look at Rakesh - hmmm...he could easily pass off for a wrestling guy but cant imagine an under 16 (or 14 or 15) wrestling tournament no matter how hard i stretch my weird imagination. So instead of the guards running to us, we run to them and for a moment i think they even got scared (again it must be Rakesh....hehehe).
We catch one and interrogate
"shewli upadhyay ka room kaunsa hai?"
"Humko nahi pata saab"
"Koi warden nahi hai yahaan?"
"Woh khaana khaake walk pe gaya hai."

So we wait for the warden to come back.The grass is nice and the air is cool and for the first time in my life - waiting is fun. But thats life , when the wait is fun it gets over quick!
The warden is back from his stroll.
"shewli upadhyay ka kaunsa room hai."
"idhar koi upadhyay nahi hai."
"Tennis tournament ke liye aayi hai - bangalore se."
"Nahi hai bhai- sab booking mein hi karta hoon.Aisa koi naam nahi tha."

Luckily (very luckily) the tennis umpires are passing by and they recognise the name.
"Haan , shewli yahin rehti hai. Room shaayad uski roomie ke naam pe book hoga."

11:15 pm

The tennis umpire takes us to a girl who supposedly knows shewli and can surely tell us where she lives. There are like 20 blocks in the hostel and there is no listing of the girls (or guys for that matter) who live in these blocks. 3 floors in each block and some 20 rooms on each floor and 2 poor shewlis trapped in each room brings an average around 2400 possible shewlis to track. Whew! one hell of a task.

'Shewli's friend': its A block- 2nd floor - room 13
The umpire : There is no room 13 on 2nd floor - it has to be room 213.
'Shewli's friend': It is surely room 13. Must be another floor then
Rakesh: This is all due to my mom.Why did she give mausi my number and promise her that i will go?
Me: Why aren't there any good under 16 females roaming around in the campus!!

11:20 pm

We try the bell at A Block ground floor- room 13.
A very ghost-eyed sleepy poor kid opens.
Rakesh: "where is shewli updhayay?" (this is funny- the puzzled look on the girl's face)
Ghost-eyed sleepy poor kid: "I don't know" (in a scared voice)

We rush to 2nd floor and try the bell at room 213.
This is one paranoid chick inside.She doesnt even open the door and shouts "Kaaaaun?"
Rakesh : "Lee?? Lee??"
Paranoid chick : "Noooo!"

This goes on for 2 or 3 more rooms.
The scene that will stay in my mind forever - Rakesh shouting at every door "Lee? Lee?"
Lo and behold, we hit gold at room 211.
Lee finally (notice the subtle use of a pun) meets her beloved cousin Rakesh cum mobile repairer cum delivery to repairer guy!!

I call this night of my life 'Finaleeee!'